Years of Negativity, A new life of freedom

Finally. They'd done it. Years of planning had paid off, they were living comfortably at the ranch with Granny Smith, no mother or father to be seen,

Just 3 children and their grandmother. All in a safe area a mile or two from PonyVille, yet, much further away from their parents than they ever hoped for. Big Macintosh and AJ could taste success, though AppleBloom didn't know any different, she was 1 and a half months old, after all.

After what seemed like a whole year of galloping and finding food, they could finally relax. They were safe, but most of all,

They were free.

It was 1 month ago, when Big Macintosh was but a colt, AppleJack was a young filly, and AppleBloom weeks old.

Big Mac and AJ had been planning this for years, how to perfectly execute their' one chance of freedom, but now with a newborn sibling, they had to revise their' entire plan, having to find more places to drink and feed their little sister. It was going rather well, one step after the other, their plan was becoming perfect, one idea led to the next, but this heaven of pure thought, criticism and adaptation soon came crashing to a halt as they heard hoof steps coming from the staircase, a quick non-voluntary response of desperation kicked in as they quickly hid their sheets of paper, map of Equestria and crayons, which were quickly pushed into the drawer with as much might as a full-on buck from the 2 young ponies. But, despite their' efforts. They were too late. Sour Apple; their mother, barged into the room, Tipsy as always, but well aware of what was going on. For ages now, she'd been wondering where the little 'brats' had been all night, every night. The tension in the room elevated as the young ponies did not know what to do. Sour apple had clear site of the poorly spelt 'Escape plan' written on a sheet of paper sticking out of the drawer, as the young ponies were trying their hardest to anticipate their mothers' next move, She erupted. It was as if she'd caught her husband cheating on her, she shouted in a malicious tone,

"WHAT THE BUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING!?"

Big Mac and AppleJack could only lower their heads as they knew they were in for it. Applebloom was instantly awoken from from her peaceful sleep in AppleJack's bed, and, as if with no thought, started to cry as loud as her vocal chords could reach.

Sour Apple Started charging at the 2 children like a bull,  her coat was just as scary as her facial expression at this point. The coat was an off-orange with patches of dark brown, as if showing how rotten and heartless she really is. her mane was black and her eyes were a brown-orange mix. Her face was wrinkled with hatred and pure evil. Though she was not evil like Nightmare Moon, Discord or any other enemy of Equestria, she certainly wasn't friendly. Even Celestia herself would have trouble looking her in the eye. She really did look like what she really was, the bad apple of the bunch. She was clearly not a pony to be messed with. Which AppleJack and Big Macintosh were now.

Her charge at the ponies was very unexpected, and neither had time to react. Big Macintosh was thrown like a rag doll to the wall, and was easily knocked out before even making contact with the metre thick concrete barrier of sound, light, and air.

All that AppleJack could do after seeing her brother bleeding from is snout and on the floor unconscious was cower in fear as Sour apple opened the drawer to see their entire plan.

"Now AppleJack, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Which one is it?"

"... Er, well, Y'see, me and Macintosh were just helping our friend..."

"AppleJack I can see straight through your lies, you're too honest and are not a good liar at all. Now, again, shall we do this the easy way, or the hard way. I'm going to count to Three."

She walked over to Big Macintosh and stood over him, putting one of her front hooves on his head and sadistically smiling at AppleJack.

"No way Ma, please, don't hurt him!" AppleJack cried at the top of her voice.

"One..."

"Ma, please!, you don't know what you're doing! Just leave him alone!"

"Two..."

"I said leave him alone! If you're going to hurt anypony, hurt me!"

"Oh I will AppleJack... Mentally! Thr-"

"ALRIGHT! Uh give up. Uh'll tell you what this is all about"

Sour Apple wore a smug face, tasting victory, she trotted over to AppleJack, belittling her by standing right in front of the filly,

"Me and Mac don't like the way you treat us, you're unpleasant to be around when we are around you, and when we're doing something you don't approve of, you're just plain scary!"

Sour Apple's face dropped in sadness.

"Oh AppleJack, I'm so sorry about everything!" she burst out into tears and attempted to hug AppleJack. This sudden mood swing came at a surprise to AppleJack at first, but she then realised that it was all because of the alcohol. This only made her more angry, since Sour Apple refuses to be helped with her alcohol problem. It all started when Big Macintosh was younger and AppleJack was around 3 years old, unfortunately, she was old enough to remember the night where her father had left Sour Apple, but she didn't want to remember all of it right now, since she was looking her mother in the eye at that point and didn't want to show any signs of negative emotion, after all, I'm a tough pony, and crying is fer the weak ponies... And I'm not a weak pony.

just as the drunken Sour Apple started to wrap her hooves around AppleJack's neck, the young filly cried "No!"

AppleJack refused to accept her mother's forgiveness and started to shout, "You've done it for too long now! Me and Macintosh have been suffering in silence since Papa left you when I was just 3 years old! You've pushed us two away too much. Our relationship is beyond repair! You're a horrible Mother and you always will be! And that, 'Ma', is Honesty at its finest!"

The room stood silent for what felt like hours, as Sour Apple's devastation slowly turned into a fit of rage as she pushed AppleJack out of the way, though making sure she was conscious to see what her rage had in store.

AppleJack slid along the cold wooden floor absorbing the impact from the bed frame, causing AppleBloom to scream even louder. She could only watch helplessly as Sour Apple took out the map of Equestria, and the pile of sheets from the drawer with her mouth and placed them in front of the fire place, which conveniently for her, was located in AppleJack's bedroom as well as the living room of the 3 bedroom house.

As Sour Apple started pushing and all the years of hard work and planning into the fire, Big Mac's eyes started to open. His first sight was a blurred version of his mother pushing paper into a fire.

His eyes closed again.

When they re-opened, he started to regain his sense of hearing, but only faint, he could here AppleBloom screaming and AppleJack crying. He could make out AppleJack on the floor, obviously in pain, and more of the paper being slowly pushed into the fire, as if Sour Apple wanted to see AppleJack mentally hurt by seeing her hard work burnt before her eyes.

His eyes closed again and re-opened much quicker. He had fully regained all of his senses. He could taste his own blood, which had dripped down from his snout to his mouth. He could see crystal-clearly everything within his field of view, and he could hear his 2 little sisters crying.

He knew it was time to act.